Hello, my name is David Buchler

Opera has been in my blood since the age of three or four years old. Sitting on my father’s knee in the living room, waiting for one of the 14 double sided shellac 78 discs to end so that I could do my job and change the disc on the His Master’s Voice record player. It was the recording of Tosca with Gigli and Caniglia.

I then really got involved in the late Eighties and early Nineties when I produced the London International Opera Festival and took over from Lord Harewood as Chairman of David Freeman’s Opera Factory. I really was on a slippery slope, travelling to opera around the world and even giving up my Vice Chairmanship at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club in order to join the Board of the English National Opera. I should have only stayed for eight years, but was asked to continue as Vice Chairman and stayed for eleven. I retired towards the end of 2016, but continue as Chairman of the Directors Emeriti.

I still see an enormous amount of opera and classical music and began writing reviews over two years ago, sharing them with friends and those who have nothing better to do. Encouraged by their enthusiasm, I am pleased to now present my Opera Spy Blog in a more formal manner. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.